Having dropped into the acid Boosey immediately scrabbles at the walls of the pit. The group can hear his frantic pants and movement, but gradually they subside into stony silence
"Boosey!" the cleric shouts, moving toward the edge of the pit. Seeing the gnome floating lifelessly in the acid, her eyes grow wide. "Save him!" she prays to her deity. Her amulet explodes with a red light that darts into the hole and wraps around the bard. Rather than sinking into his body gently, it seems to slip off him, as though something were fighting it off.
"Shut up!" she screams at something, tears pouring down her face. "You cannot take him! He will come for you! SHUT UP AND GIVE HIM BACK TO ME!"
The red magic continues to slip and slide against his form until, finally, it finds a chink in the defense and sinks into Boosey's body. Nenne shifts the rope to allow Allister a better chance to scoop him up as more angry tears fall.
Allister grits his teeth and accepts the pain of the acid pit again. He pulls Boosey's lifeless form up into his arms while holding on for dear life. The acid stings as it rolls off the bard and onto the warrior. Nenne and Glimbul don't even hesitate in pulling them out of the pit. Fueled by adrenaline, Nenne lifts both of them clear of the pit. Boosey isn't moving, and the acid has done a number on his body. Nenne can hardly look at the mess of gore that is her friend. Never in all of their lives have any of them seen acid work to such deadly effect.
"Enough of this, Boosey Sackbut, you get up," Nenne orders her friend through her tears. Her face is stern as she pokes him in the forehead, and a cloud of red magic envelops him easily this time. (Cure Wounds, level 2 for 21 healing)
As the gnome is enveloped by the healing magic, his eyes open and he looks up groggily. He looks like he’s about to say something, but is cut short as he vomits up some green bile, more than seems possible for such a small creature.
He shudders as he still can feel the burn of the acid on his body. Once he’s finished vomiting, he sees Allister’s pale face. In an instant a warm glow covers the fighter, and his face begins to recover some of its colour. After thirty seconds, the glow moves to fall on Boosey, and his shuddering begins to subside as the healing of aura of vitality does its work.
Seeing how the acid trap worked, Glimbul takes out his bow and begins methodically shooting the available spaces in the room. After much time shooting everywhere he lets out a light sigh. “There doesnt seem to be any other of these pitfall traps in the room. It pains me to see that Boosey had fallen into one of those death pits, but I am glad you are still with us Boosey.”
Nenne peers into the room from the hallway and frowns. "The maze holds the key," she recites thoughtfully.
"The plaque said the mirror held twelve, and that was literal. I wonder if this clue is as well, and we need to insert a key into the maze somewhere." She looks at the chest, then at Glimbul and Allister. "Can either of you pick the lock? I can protect you if you are fearful of more traps."
Eventually Boosey regains his feet, somewhat unsteadily. He cautiously creeps to the edge of the pit and looks into it. When he sees the smooth walls, and the thick acid in the bottom, he has to suppress a great shudder. He still has his wits about him though, and says to the others. "Did you notice that this stuff had no effect on my gear? There may still be useful things in there from other...unfortunates."
He asks Allister for the grappling hook, attaches it to the rope, then begins to drag it through the pit to see if there is anything to find.
Boosey is able to dredge up a great number of bones. It would seem that bones and glass are totally unaffected by the poison. There are some other things that come up, but over time the acid has eaten holes into metal and leather as well.
"Shall we cross this thing then." Boosey looks down at the acid dubiously. "If you all cross first, I'll tie the rope round me and jump. If I'm short, please pull it! Quickly"
Boosey shares concerns about not trusting the chest. He shakes his head at is and calls it 'too convienient'. With some help from his friends, the bard and everyone else cross the acid pit. The room stands dark, save the glow of the chest and the shadows that Allister's sword chases away.
Once across the void Boosey breathes a sigh of relief, and looks back at the opening in the ground with a grim expression. "We should search this lower floor before approaching the coffin. There may be secret doors in this place, and I wouldn't put it past those frescos to fire out something nasty at us." Carefully he makes his way to the east wall, testing the floor with his staff as he goes. Once at the wall he carefully works his way round to the edge of the pit, then back to the foot of the stairs, checking the floor and the wall as he goes.
Boosey's search is quickly joined by Glimbul. The two of them don't find anything alarming or untoward about the floor, but they do find seams around each of the minotaur murals. There are ten murals in all, which dot every corner of the lower level, save behind the sarcophagus. Glimbul notices a keyhole in the very center of the sarcophagus lid and suspects the thing to be locked, but not trapped.
After carefully checking the surroundings Glimbul makes his way to the stairs and methodically checks each step before moving up to the next one. When he reaches the top of the stairs he slowly moves closer to the maze depicted on the wall. Careful not to touch it he studies it to find nothing else aside from the maze. “Guys, it looks like this room is safe for now. But my guess is that something could happen the moment we touch the maze. What do you think?”
“We’ll have to make a choice. Touch the maze and look for the key, (though that could be figurative rather than an actual key) or we try to open the coffin. I think we should try the maze first, but we should be prepared for anything.”
He looks back down to the lower floor. “Maybe we should try and open one of those frescoes, first”
"I still fail to understand why that chest is there. Nothing in this place has been purposeless, though I freely admit much of what we have encountered had the sole purpose of causing us misery. If you do not wish to touch it, perhaps we can open it from afar? Or even destroy it from afar. Yet I do not trust these frescoes."
She looks around the room with her augmented sight...and frowns deeply. "I see no magic here. Yet, behold that sarcophagus! How it shifts color. There is clearly magic here. Something must be interfering with my spell. And not the..." she looks like she's trying and failing to hold back the words "...theS-Soulmonger, either. This is a nondetection effect. It must be."
She pauses a moment and looks to Boosey. Her voice is suddenly unsure. "You...you do see the shifting colors, do you not?"
While Nenne scans the room, Glimbul takes up an ink quill and sketches the maze in its entirety. The process takes a good while and once he has it, he points out that there are no entrances or exits.
Taking a queue from Nenne, the rogue sends arrow after arrow into the wooden chest until it collapses. As soon as it does, a hatch breaks loose at the top of the stairs. A five foot ball of granite falls out of the hatch and thunders down the stairwell. It plows into and under the acid pit.
Allister jumps across the acid pool and rummages through the debris of the chest. After a short moment he holds his hand up and says „I found something. It’s made of metal and... might be a key. A thin rod with a flat and notched bit at the end.“
Glimbul’s face lights up for a moment before looking down in contemplation. “The maze should be the key... could that key be the cause of the Minotaur trap?” He turns to look toward the maze. “I am thinking of investigating that maze more thoroughly if you all don’t mind. I have some theories I want to try out.”
Having dropped into the acid Boosey immediately scrabbles at the walls of the pit. The group can hear his frantic pants and movement, but gradually they subside into stony silence
"Boosey!" the cleric shouts, moving toward the edge of the pit. Seeing the gnome floating lifelessly in the acid, her eyes grow wide. "Save him!" she prays to her deity. Her amulet explodes with a red light that darts into the hole and wraps around the bard. Rather than sinking into his body gently, it seems to slip off him, as though something were fighting it off.
"Shut up!" she screams at something, tears pouring down her face. "You cannot take him! He will come for you! SHUT UP AND GIVE HIM BACK TO ME!"
The red magic continues to slip and slide against his form until, finally, it finds a chink in the defense and sinks into Boosey's body. Nenne shifts the rope to allow Allister a better chance to scoop him up as more angry tears fall.
Allister grits his teeth and accepts the pain of the acid pit again. He pulls Boosey's lifeless form up into his arms while holding on for dear life. The acid stings as it rolls off the bard and onto the warrior. Nenne and Glimbul don't even hesitate in pulling them out of the pit. Fueled by adrenaline, Nenne lifts both of them clear of the pit. Boosey isn't moving, and the acid has done a number on his body. Nenne can hardly look at the mess of gore that is her friend. Never in all of their lives have any of them seen acid work to such deadly effect.
"Enough of this, Boosey Sackbut, you get up," Nenne orders her friend through her tears. Her face is stern as she pokes him in the forehead, and a cloud of red magic envelops him easily this time. (Cure Wounds, level 2 for 21 healing)
As the gnome is enveloped by the healing magic, his eyes open and he looks up groggily. He looks like he’s about to say something, but is cut short as he vomits up some green bile, more than seems possible for such a small creature.
He shudders as he still can feel the burn of the acid on his body. Once he’s finished vomiting, he sees Allister’s pale face. In an instant a warm glow covers the fighter, and his face begins to recover some of its colour. After thirty seconds, the glow moves to fall on Boosey, and his shuddering begins to subside as the healing of aura of vitality does its work.
Seeing how the acid trap worked, Glimbul takes out his bow and begins methodically shooting the available spaces in the room. After much time shooting everywhere he lets out a light sigh. “There doesnt seem to be any other of these pitfall traps in the room. It pains me to see that Boosey had fallen into one of those death pits, but I am glad you are still with us Boosey.”
Nenne peers into the room from the hallway and frowns. "The maze holds the key," she recites thoughtfully.
"The plaque said the mirror held twelve, and that was literal. I wonder if this clue is as well, and we need to insert a key into the maze somewhere." She looks at the chest, then at Glimbul and Allister. "Can either of you pick the lock? I can protect you if you are fearful of more traps."
Eventually Boosey regains his feet, somewhat unsteadily. He cautiously creeps to the edge of the pit and looks into it. When he sees the smooth walls, and the thick acid in the bottom, he has to suppress a great shudder. He still has his wits about him though, and says to the others. "Did you notice that this stuff had no effect on my gear? There may still be useful things in there from other...unfortunates."
He asks Allister for the grappling hook, attaches it to the rope, then begins to drag it through the pit to see if there is anything to find.
Boosey is able to dredge up a great number of bones. It would seem that bones and glass are totally unaffected by the poison. There are some other things that come up, but over time the acid has eaten holes into metal and leather as well.
"Shall we cross this thing then." Boosey looks down at the acid dubiously. "If you all cross first, I'll tie the rope round me and jump. If I'm short, please pull it! Quickly"
Boosey shares concerns about not trusting the chest. He shakes his head at is and calls it 'too convienient'. With some help from his friends, the bard and everyone else cross the acid pit. The room stands dark, save the glow of the chest and the shadows that Allister's sword chases away.
Once across the void Boosey breathes a sigh of relief, and looks back at the opening in the ground with a grim expression. "We should search this lower floor before approaching the coffin. There may be secret doors in this place, and I wouldn't put it past those frescos to fire out something nasty at us." Carefully he makes his way to the east wall, testing the floor with his staff as he goes. Once at the wall he carefully works his way round to the edge of the pit, then back to the foot of the stairs, checking the floor and the wall as he goes.
Boosey's search is quickly joined by Glimbul. The two of them don't find anything alarming or untoward about the floor, but they do find seams around each of the minotaur murals. There are ten murals in all, which dot every corner of the lower level, save behind the sarcophagus. Glimbul notices a keyhole in the very center of the sarcophagus lid and suspects the thing to be locked, but not trapped.
After carefully checking the surroundings Glimbul makes his way to the stairs and methodically checks each step before moving up to the next one. When he reaches the top of the stairs he slowly moves closer to the maze depicted on the wall. Careful not to touch it he studies it to find nothing else aside from the maze. “Guys, it looks like this room is safe for now. But my guess is that something could happen the moment we touch the maze. What do you think?”
“We’ll have to make a choice. Touch the maze and look for the key, (though that could be figurative rather than an actual key) or we try to open the coffin. I think we should try the maze first, but we should be prepared for anything.”
He looks back down to the lower floor. “Maybe we should try and open one of those frescoes, first”
"I still fail to understand why that chest is there. Nothing in this place has been purposeless, though I freely admit much of what we have encountered had the sole purpose of causing us misery. If you do not wish to touch it, perhaps we can open it from afar? Or even destroy it from afar. Yet I do not trust these frescoes."
She looks around the room with her augmented sight...and frowns deeply. "I see no magic here. Yet, behold that sarcophagus! How it shifts color. There is clearly magic here. Something must be interfering with my spell. And not the..." she looks like she's trying and failing to hold back the words "...the S-Soulmonger, either. This is a nondetection effect. It must be."
She pauses a moment and looks to Boosey. Her voice is suddenly unsure. "You...you do see the shifting colors, do you not?"
While Nenne scans the room, Glimbul takes up an ink quill and sketches the maze in its entirety. The process takes a good while and once he has it, he points out that there are no entrances or exits.
Taking a queue from Nenne, the rogue sends arrow after arrow into the wooden chest until it collapses. As soon as it does, a hatch breaks loose at the top of the stairs. A five foot ball of granite falls out of the hatch and thunders down the stairwell. It plows into and under the acid pit.
Allister jumps across the acid pool and rummages through the debris of the chest. After a short moment he holds his hand up and says „I found something. It’s made of metal and... might be a key. A thin rod with a flat and notched bit at the end.“
Glimbul’s face lights up for a moment before looking down in contemplation. “The maze should be the key... could that key be the cause of the Minotaur trap?” He turns to look toward the maze. “I am thinking of investigating that maze more thoroughly if you all don’t mind. I have some theories I want to try out.”
“Go ahead. If you need help just call.“